IPA hop experiment

[steve76]

I want to plant start a hop garden in the spring, but I am not sure which varieties I want in my beer. What I would like to do is brew a few different IPA's with different hops and see what I like best. My original idea was to make 5 SMASH IPA's, using a different hop in each one and evaluate from there. But I don't get many brew days, and 5 batches would be ready at different times and I wouldn't really be able to taste them side by side. Plan 2 was to do 1 mash and 5 1 gallon SMASHes from the single mash. Also very time consuming and would be a not very SWMBO friendly endeavor. On to plan 3, which is to brew a 5 gallon batch that is lightly bittered with a neutral hop, then after fermentation separate into the 5 1 gallon batches for dry hopping on 5 different hops.

I will probably order my hop crowns from Great Lakes, so I will see what they have available to select my experiment varieties based on that, leaning toward the C hops for selection. My questions are recommendations for the neutral bittering hops in the single boil and a basic recipe/tips for this experiment.

 

[TastyAdventure]

Magnum is the general consensus for neutral bittering.

I plan on eventually doing Plan 3, except before chilling the wort, immediately after the boil I will separate all 5 gallons, and do a Hopstand with 5 different hops in their respective vessels. Than dry hop after fermentation with same respective hops.
This way you get a fuller flavor and range of what these hops bring to the party

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I like warrior and Apollo for bittering. I brew a lot of ipa with columbus, chinook and simcoe. But you won't be able to grow simcoe. Cascade and centennial would be.some other good choices.

 

[bigdongsr94]

Not sure where you are at but generally I don't think you start with the hops you want but rather the hops you can grow. I can grow cascade and nugget but I am not able to grow cenntenial. Don't know why. So maybe you don't start there but after you select what you want check if those can be grown well in your climate.

 

[TheCADJockey]

We planted Nugget in our garden. The first year it sprouted a couple inches. The second year, it grew 25 feet tall and with minimum maintenance produced about 3 bushels after losing the top most part of the bine. My freezer no longer has food in it, but is instead packed with vacuum sealed bags of Nugget.

 

[steve76]

I will definitely look into which hop varieties grow well here in southern Maine and select from there.

As far as the bittering, magnum, warrior or apollo, what would I be looking at for an amount and hop schedule? If I am looking to only bitter, would a single addition at 60 minutes be the right answer?

I haven't put together any recipes before, only followed someone else's. I was thinking 10 lbs of MO or Golden Promise and an ounce of bittering hops, then dry hop maybe half an ounce for each variety/gallon. Does this sound right, or am I going to be way out an something with this?

 

[TastyAdventure]

You need to get a brewing recipe calculator. There are plenty for free. Plug in the weight of your hops, AA%, OG, and time in the boil, and it will tell you your IBUs.
Then Google OG:IBU ratio to figure out how many IBU's you want and adjust your weight accordingly.